WASHINGTON — Attorneys for two Georgia election workers told jurors Monday that former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani targeted their clients and destroyed their reputations as part of a scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election in that state.
Giuliani appeared in D.C. District Court for the first day of a civil jury trial to determine how much he owes Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss in damages for falsely claiming they committed fraud during the 2020 election.
Giuliani, who served as former President Donald Trump’s attorney and one of his most prominent surrogates, already lost on the question of whether he defamed Moss and her mother, Freeman. In August, U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell granted a default judgment against Giuliani over the “willful shirking of his discovery obligations” in the case and ordered him to pay more than $130,000 in legal fees. Howell told jurors Monday their only job was to determine how much Giuliani owes Moss and Freeman in damages. Their suit seeks $15.5-$43 million.
Moss and Freeman worked as ballot counters at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta in 2020 when they became targets of false claims of engaging in a plot to rig the election. During a video call with members of the Georgia State Senate, Giuliani accused her and her mother of passing around USB drives “as if they were vials of heroin or cocaine” and suggested they should be investigated. In his own call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Trump brought up the women 18 times and at one point referred to Moss as “a professional vote scammer and hustler.”
Although the claims against the women were unfounded, they quickly became the targets of racist and violent threats and testified before the January 6th Committee that they were forced to flee from their homes. Moss said at one point she received a terrified call from her 70-year-old grandmother after a group of people broken into her home saying they were going to make a citizen’s arrest of Moss and Freeman.
“I’ve lost my name,” Freeman said during a deposition with the committee. “I’ve lost my reputation. I’ve lost my sense of security. All because a group of people, starting with #45 and his ally Rudy Giuliani, decided to scapegoat me and my daughter Shaye to push their lies about how the election was stolen.”
Moss and Freeman filed a defamation suit against Giuliani, right-wing broadcaster One America News and its White House correspondent in December 2021. The OAN plaintiffs were dismissed from the suit in May 2022 following a settlement on undisclosed terms.
On Monday, attorney Von DuBose called a consultant from security and risk consulting firm to testify that since Giuliani spoke to the Georgia State Senate about Freeman and Moss their names had generated hundreds of thousands of impressions online. When they were mentioned, the sentiment was predominately negative.
During his opening statements, DuBose played a series of calls Freeman and Moss had received after they were targeted by Giuliani and others. In one, a caller chanted the n-word over and over again. DuBose said the reaction to Giuliani's false claims about his clients was "swift, it was racist and it was vicious.
"Ladies and gentlemen, that's what this case is about," DuBose said. "It's about names that have been disgraced. Two names: Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss. It's about what their names mean today, compared to before Rudy Giuliani."
For his part, Giuliani's attorney, Joseph Sibley, didn't deny wrongdoing on his client's part. But, he said, Giuliani was just a small part in a larger machine.
"You're going to see a lot of evidence that these women were harmed," Sibley said, "but not much evidence that Mr. Giuliani was the cause."
Sibley said at the end of the case he would ask the jury to award Moss and Freeman some amount of damages — but suggested it would be far lower than what they've sought.
"If you award the damages they are asking for, it will be the end of Mr. Giuliani," Sibley said.
Giuliani has faced mounting legal woes related to his participation in efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. His license to practice law was suspended in New York and D.C. in 2021 after the New York Supreme Court found “uncontroverted evidence” he’d lied to the court and the public about evidence of election fraud. In July, a disciplinary panel for the DC Bar Association recommended he be permanently disbarred.
Giuliani and Trump were also indicted in Georgia in August alongside 17 other people on racketeering charges stemming from their efforts to overturn the election results in that state. Giuliani was charged with 13 counts, including multiple counts of making false statements and writing, solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer and conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree. He pleaded not guilty to all counts and was released on a $150,000 bond.
Jurors were instructed to return Tuesday morning to continue hearing testimony in the case. Giuliani has said he intends to take the stand in his own defense. Moss and Freeman were also expected to testify during the trial.